South Sudan Crisis

South Sudan Map
Source: OCHA/ReliefWeb

The country

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 and is the world’s newest independent nation. The country is located in East-Central Africa, bordering Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. Its capital is Juba. South Sudan covers a land area of 644,329 square kilometers. As of 2025, the country has an estimated population of around 13.4 million people.

The humanitarian situation

South Sudan is in the midst of a dire humanitarian crisis driven by years of brutal civil war. Nearly 400,000 South Sudanese died as a result of the conflict that began in December 2013. Atrocities and attacks on civilians, including widespread sexual violence, defined the civil war. In 2025, the world’s youngest nation is on the verge of plunging back into civil war due to prevailing political tensions and a worsening security climate.

At the same time, more than half of South Sudan's population is facing crisis or worse levels of hunger and in need of urgent humanitarian aid. Extensive flooding, intercommunal violence and disease outbreak continue to impact people across the country.

With 4.3 million people forcibly displaced, South Sudan has the highest proportion - one third - of its population displaced of any country in Africa. More than 2.3 million people have fled to neighboring countries. Most of them are now in Uganda, which hosts 1 million South Sudanese refugees. About 2 million people are internally displaced. In addition, South Sudan hosts some 555,000 refugees and asylum-seekers.

In 2025, an estimated 9.3 million people - 69 percent of South Sudan's total population of 13.4 million - are requiring some form of humanitarian assistance.

The worsening humanitarian emergency in South Sudan is driven by the recent escalation of fighting between forces allied with the two main peace partners, subnational violence, spillover from the war in Sudan, disease outbreaks, an accelerating economic collapse, extreme weather events linked to climate change, and a sharp decline in international aid.

Since late February 2025, political instability and rising hostilities between armed groups have led to clashes, primarily in Upper Nile State but also in other regions. These clashes have devastated lives and damaged essential services. Already grappling with displacement, diseases, and food insecurity, many people have been forced to flee once more. The violence has swept through several states, escalating tensions nationwide with armed clashes and aerial bombardments causing widespread casualties.

Between March and May, over 165,000 people have fled increasing tensions and armed conflict in South Sudan, seeking safety both within the country and across borders. Among these are some 100,000 people who have sought refuge in neighboring countries, mainly due to insecurity, intercommunal violence, and deteriorating humanitarian conditions. About 65,000 people have been displaced within South Sudan.

The sharp deterioration in the country's political and security situation since February threatens to undermine the peace progress made thus far and plunge the country back into war. Tensions have been heightened by internal conflict, particularly between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those aligned with Vice President Riek Machar.

Ongoing insecurity in Upper Nile State, Warrap State, Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria, Jonglei, Unity and Western Bahr el Ghazal continues to force civilians to flee their homes. The situation is further complicated by the war in Sudan, which has caused over 1.14 million people to cross into South Sudan. The war in the neighboring country, which broke out more than two years ago, has profound regional implications.

According to humanitarian sources, aid agencies working in South Sudan are stretched to capacity as there is already not enough food, clean water, sanitation facilities, shelter, healthcare, or protection services in transit centers, existing displacement sites, refugee settlements and host communities into which vulnerable people from Sudan are arriving. Humanitarian organizations in South Sudan have called for urgent funding to ensure continued support for onward transportation for people fleeing the Sudan conflict to South Sudan. 

Soaring rates of severe malnutrition, acute hunger, and deteriorating health conditions threaten the lives and well-being of millions of people in South Sudan. The situation is exacerbated by weather extremes related to the climate crisis.

According to IPC assessments, South Sudan is facing a major hunger crisis. From April to July 2025, the food security situation threatens to worsen with the arrival of the lean season. An estimated 7.69 million people are facing IPC Phase 3 or higher (Crisis or worse). Of this total, 2.53 million people are experiencing critical levels of acute food insecurity, classified as IPC Phase 4 (Emergency), and an additional 63,000 people are experiencing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, classified as IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe).

Meanwhile, nearly 2.1 million children under five are at risk of malnutrition. This number includes 650,000 children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) who require urgent medical intervention.

South Sudan is also one of the countries badly affected by climate change. Dry spell and flooding contribute to people’s food insecurity situation. Consecutive years of record flooding have led to widespread displacement, loss of farmland and destruction of livelihoods.

Severe flooding continued to plague the country in 2024. Last year, flooding impacted approximately 1.4 million people in 44 of South Sudan's 78 counties and the Abyei Administrative Area. More than 379,000 people had been displaced by the floods. Large swathes of the country are under water year-round, and sudden flooding has hit new and unlikely areas.

Many of those hit hardest are people who had not yet recovered from the devastating floods between 2019 and 2022, which affected an average of more than 1 million people each year. The prolonged flooding has made access to basic needs such as food, clean water and health care difficult and contributed to the near collapse of livelihoods.

South Sudan is also home to numerous public health crises, exacerbated by limited immunisation coverage, disruptions in immunisation services, widespread displacement and the influx of displaced people from Sudan. Inadequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and natural disasters such as flooding, add to the vulnerability of communities. 

Amid a crippled health system, the country is facing an alarming cholera outbreak, with more than 65,000 infections and over 1,200 deaths across 49 counties between September 2024 and May 2025, with new cases emerging daily. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the current cholera outbreak is having a severe impact on children, with nearly 50 percent of cases occurring in children under the age of 15, including about 25 percent of cases in children under the age of 5, while exacerbating the already severe malnutrition crisis.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that hundreds of thousands of people in South Sudan are at risk of going without life-saving assistance unless additional funding for the humanitarian response is received without delay. 

The 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) seeks US$1.7 billion to provide life-saving assistance to 5.4 million of the most vulnerable people across the country - out of 9.3 million people in need. Despite growing needs, the HNRP is only 20 percent funded as of June. Several life-saving programs had to be suspended due to a lack of resources in the context of the global humanitarian funding crisis.

According to the UN, 9 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance in 2024, a slight decrease compared to 2023. Among those requiring humanitarian aid last year were 4.9 million children. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 9.4 million people - three quarters of the population - were in need of humanitarian aid or protection in 2023. 

The humanitarian response in South Sudan required US$1.8 billion in 2024 to provide humanitarian aid to the 6 million people targeted. The 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) was targeting only the most vulnerable children, women, and men, meaning the needs of millions of others remaines unmet as humanitarian operations in South Sudan are severely underfunded. As of February 2025, last year's HRP was just 68 percent covered by funding.

In 2024, an estimated 4.6 million people in South Sudan, including women, girls, boys and men, were reached with some form of humanitarian assistance and protection. This is equivalent to almost 78 percent of the 5.9 million people targeted by HRP for 2024. Of the total, 2.5 million were female and 2.1 million were male.

As of January 2024, the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for South Sudan, which required $2.1 billion to support 7.4 million people, was only 51 percent funded. 

In 2024, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) sought $1.4 billion to meet the needs of 2.3 million South Sudanese refugees living in five neighboring countries - Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP).  In 2024, only 27 percent of the required funding was received.

Over the past three years, humanitarian operations for South Sudanese refugees have been severely underfunded. In 2023, only 24 percent of the required funding was received, far short of what is needed to ensure that all South Sudanese refugees can live in dignity. In 2022, only a third of the needs were met.
 

South Sudan LocationThe security situation

South Sudan has not held a presidential election since independence in 2011. After a power crisis erupted in 2013, South Sudan descended into conflict that has spread across much of the country, killing hundreds of thousands of people. A series of broken peace agreements and putative coalition governments have perpetuated competition between rival militias and a war economy that continues to fuel instability and violence.

An initial peace agreement signed in 2015 failed. After many delays, a revitalized agreement signed in 2018 led to the formation of a Transitional Government of National Unity in February 2020. Progress in implementing the peace agreement has been slow, however, as the parties quarrel over the division of power. 

Elections had been postponed to December 2024 and the transition period had been extended until February 2025. In September 2024, the South Sudanese presidency postponed elections again and extended the country's transitional period by 24 months - until February 2027. The decision is seen as a collective failure by the country's leaders to create the conditions necessary to hold credible and peaceful elections.

The United Nations has endorsed the extension of the transitional period, albeit with regret and disappointment. The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the African Union (AU) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have called on all parties to break the perpetual cycle of successive transitions and to put the interests of South Sudan and its people first.

South Sudan is now scheduled to hold its long-delayed general elections in December 2026, but many question whether the world's youngest nation will be ready.

Since February 2025, escalating hostilities in South Sudan have put the country’s fragile peace process at risk and further exacerbated the already dire human rights and humanitarian situation. Fighting between the South Sudan People's Defense Forces (SSPDF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Army - In Opposition (SPLA-IO), as well as their respective allied armed groups, has killed dozens of civilians.

The latest violence erupted after a series of attacks and confrontations in February in Nasir County, Upper Nile State, reportedly involving a militia group called the White Army. Most of the fighting has been concentrated in Central Equatoria, Jonglei, Unity, and Upper Nile states.

Dozens of politicians linked to the SPLM-IO have been arrested, including South Sudan's First Vice President Riek Machar; ministers; members of parliament; and military officers. In March, at least 55 senior government officials affiliated with the SPLM-IO were arrested across the country, including civilians.

Meanwhile, subnational violence within South Sudan continues to kill and injure civilians, impede humanitarian access throughout the country, and force people to flee from their homes. In addition to climate-related disasters, armed conflict and communal clashes are the main causes of displacement. 

Escalating intercommunal violence in South Sudan's Warrap State has caused hundreds of deaths, destroyed homes, and led to widespread displacement since December 2024. Tonj East in Warrap State has witnessed a series of violent incidents, including cattle raids and retaliatory attacks involving large groups of armed youths from neighboring communities. More than 200 people are estimated to have died in the intercommunal conflict in March alone.

In its latest quarterly report on human rights, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) documented 233 incidents of violence between October and December 2024, affecting at least 866 civilians: 352 killed, 350 injured, 129 abducted and 35 subjected to sexual violence. According to UNMISS, sub-national violence involving community-based militias and/or civil defense groups accounted for 77 percent of the total number of victims during the last quarter of 2024.

Armed violence and deteriorating security conditions exacerbate food insecurity and malnutrition rates, particularly among children under five and pregnant and lactating women. Ongoing fighting in neighboring Sudan and the increasing number of civilians crossing into into South Sudan have exacerbated the security and humanitarian situation in the country.

The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan concluded in a report - released in February 2025 - that South Sudan's political leaders must address the impunity and corruption that fuel gross human rights violations or risk jeopardising South Sudan's political transition.

According to the report, impunity for serious crimes fuels cyclical violence, conflict and gross human rights violations across South Sudan. Conflict-related and gender-based violence are widespread and unaddressed, causing severe trauma. Serious violations against children continue in the conflict, including child recruitment, and most South Sudanese girls and boys are malnourished and out of school.

South Sudan continues to be the one of the most violent context for aid workers in the world.  According to the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD), 34 humanitarian workers were killed in the country in 2023. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says ongoing insecurity and violence against civilians and humanitarian workers affects the delivery of life-saving emergency supplies to people in an already dire situation. The work of humanitarian organizations is further hampered by access restrictions, bureaucratic obstacles, widespread crime, and inter-community violence.

Delivering humanitarian assistance to crisis-affected populations is particularly challenging in the country due to insecurity and the lack of basic infrastructure. Threats and attacks jeopardize the safety of aid workers and prevent relief organizations from reaching people in need. Criminal activities, such as ambushes and looting of humanitarian trucks and assets, often force temporary pauses in humanitarian operations.

Donations

Your donation for the South Sudan emergency can help United Nations agencies, international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their local partners to rapidly provide water, food, medicine, shelter and other aid to the people who need it most.

To find other organizations to which you can donate, visit: Humanitarian Crisis Relief, Refugees and IDPs, Children in Need, Hunger and Food Insecurity, Medical Humanitarian Aid, Vulnerable Groups, Faith-Based Humanitarian Organizations, and Human Rights Organizations.

Further information

Last updated: 08/06/2025

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